


After that day

by Soulpeace



Category: Figure Skating RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe, Flashbacks, Friendship, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, ISU Cup of China 2014, M/M, Mention of blood, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-03
Updated: 2015-05-03
Packaged: 2018-03-28 21:54:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,134
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3871075
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Soulpeace/pseuds/Soulpeace
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What if Javier had been in Shanghai on that day?</p>
            </blockquote>





	After that day

**Author's Note:**

> Took some liberties with what happened at the ISU Cup of China 2014.

From time to time, when Yuzuru falls during training and doesn’t laugh about it straight away, or takes some time to get back to his feet, Javier can feel the fear winding up in his stomach. It curls there and he can only start to breathe again when Yuzuru gets up.

He’s been feeling that way since the Cup of China.

***

He remembers being so happy to have been part of the trip. Brian had told him they had a spot in the plane for him, if he wanted to, and Javier had jumped on the occasion.

Going to China without the pressure of competition was a fantastic idea. But being able to keep training with Brian and Yuzuru, that was just added bonus. Javier hated training alone, he had never felt as good about training as he had those past few years with Brian, and it was even better since Yuzuru had joined the team.

Javier remembers being backstage, in a comfortable couch, big screen in front of him to watch his training mates. Nam and Yuzuru, both in the last group, that was just brilliant.

The warm-up had barely started, Javier doesn’t remember holding a drink at that moment, in fact he’s forgotten most of what he was doing before. He only knows he must have been, because afterward, there was juice all over the floor.

At first he had just winced, because yep, that one would hurt for a few days. But they all had suffered a few collision on the ice. It was inevitable. He didn’t know one high-level skater who had not had these things happen to them.

It’s when Yuzuru didn’t laugh it off and didn’t get back up that Javier forgot all about what he himself had been doing then.

Yuzuru was lying down the ice, on his back, completely unmoving. The camera closed up on his face, and Javier saw the blood, running on his face. And nobody seem to be moving anywhere to come help.

That’s when the fear took hold of him for the first time. Clenching stomach that made you think you were sick, until you realised that the adrenaline was actually just shutting down your unnecessary organs. The twisting sensation around his heart, the shortness of breath, the way his brain seemed to slow down the very essence of time so that every second seemed like an hour.

Javier remembers leaping from the couch and running toward the rink. He remembers the terrifying silence when he got there, as if everybody was holding their breath. He thinks it was him, or maybe it was Brian, maybe they both did it together, but the silence was broken down when they screamed for a medic. The noise exploded in the rink, overwhelming from every side, but Javier was already on the ice. Skate on his feet or not, he would get to his friend, he would get help to him.

Javier slid to his knees up to Yuzuru. The boy was still not moving, almost as pale as the ice he was lying onto. He was breathing though, and so Javier started breathing with him.

He took Yuzuru’s hand in his, raised his head and saw Brian and three medics coming over. Javier looked back at his friend on the ice and thought that he had never seen him as still as in that moment. Yuzuru was not a big talker when he was on the ice, he was usually way too focused to be the kind of goofy Javier sometimes liked to be during training. Even outside of the rink, Javier did most of the talking. But Yuzuru was always in movement, his body never still. On and off the ice, he was always able to express himself with a gesture or another.

The medics finally took over. Brian put his hand on Javier’s shoulder, telling him to give them room to do their job, that he had done well. But Javier just couldn’t let go of Yuzuru’s hand yet, not until the other boy had opened his eyes full of mischief and smiled that teasing smile at him. He tried to let go, but his fingers just refused to obey.

The medics finally got Yuzuru on the stretcher, one starting to clean the blood on the side of his head so they could see how bad it was. Javier’s eyes left Yuzuru’s face for a fraction of a second, just to make sure Brian was still there with them, and he almost missed the fluttering of eyelids on the too still face.

Yuzuru was finally, finally, coming back to himself. The boy was completely disorientated, he kept asking Brian if he was late for practice, forgetting that the only one who ever needed to be woken up by coach Brian was Javier himself.

The medics had taken Yuzuru backstage and he was realising they were not in Toronto. In typical Yuzuru fashion, he first asked to be sent back on the ice. He was still lost enough not to remember which Grand Prix this was, but he knew he had to skate if he wanted to have a chance at the Grand Prix finale.

Things got blurry once more in Javier’s memory. He remembers pleading, screaming and even crying; he remembers thinking that Yuzuru was just like the tsunami which had devastated his hometown, unstoppable no matter what; destructive, even to himself. He remembers that when Yuzuru had been done fighting them all, Javier was the one left backstage again. He remembers crying while watching his friend skate and fall, so many times.

He remembers more clearly that after all was said and done, they brought Yuzuru backstage once again and that he fell into Javier’s waiting arms, crying in pain and in relief that he had done it and that it was all over for now.

Javier remembers the hospital afterward, the way they discovered that Yuzuru had sustained way more injuries that they had previously thought; the way that by that point, Yuzuru had been about as dead to the world as he had been back on the ice just after the fall.

***

When it happens, Javier shakes himself out of these bad memories, and skates to Yuzuru.

His reward is to see that beautiful smile aimed toward him and Yuzuru’s broken English asking for his help getting up.

Javier feels the fear disappear when he gets hold of Yuzuru’s hand and helps him back up on his feet, like he wish would have happened back then.

But soon, Yuzuru distracts him with his skating, and Javier forgets all about the fall and the hardship that followed.

All he sees is his friend, healthy and smiling, and he’s just full of happiness about being able to skate with him again.


End file.
